Stevie Nicks opens up about the reversal of Roe v. Wade

Stevie Nicks on "The Lighthouse," her rallying cry for women's rights

CBS Sunday Morning

October 27, 2024

Watched the full segment at this link

On a trip to New York City earlier this month to appear on "Saturday Night Live" for the first time since 1983, Stevie Nicks said she was scared to death. She said her first reaction when she got the call to appear on "SNL" was, "Absolutely not. Because I was terrified to do it, 'cause it goes out live!"

But she did appear on "SNL," and her performance of "The Lighthouse" brought down the house.

She says the inspiration for her latest song, a rallying cry for women's rights, struck a few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and it took her less than a day to write the song and record it.

Smith asked, "It takes some courage to step into the waters of the abortion debate. Why take the risk?"

"Because everybody kept saying, 'Well, somebody has to do something. Somebody has to say something,'" replied Nicks. "And I'm like, 'Well, I have a platform. I tell a good story. So maybe I should try to do something.' I was also there. I was, been there, done that."

In the late '70s, Nicks was on top of the world with the legendary band Fleetwood Mac. She'd broken up with her longtime partner and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham, and she was romantically involved with Don Henley of The Eagles when she found out she was pregnant, and decided that, as a touring musician, being a mother was not in the cards. 

In 1979 she terminated the pregnancy. "In my younger life, I'd already decided I didn't want to have somebody have their feelings hurt all the time, and like, 'When are you comin' back?' 'Well, I don't know. I'll be back when I get back,' you know?" Nicks said. "And not even having any idea how big that Fleetwood Mac was going to get in the future, you know? And this is, like, super personal and weird, so you know ... you can edit this out if necessary."

"I appreciate your sharing this story though," said Smith.

"Well, and it's a good story, too. I tell a good story!" Nicks said. "I got pregnant. And it was like, Why? I have an IUD. I am totally protected. I have a great gynecologist. How come this has happened? What the heck?"

"So you took all the precautions?"

"Yes. And I'm like, This can't be happening. Fleetwood Mac is three years in. And it's big. And we're going into our third album. It was like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no."

Nicks said it would have "destroyed" Fleetwood Mac if she had had the baby: "Absolutely, because many reasons. I would've, like, tried my best to get through, you know, being in the studio every single day expecting a child. But mostly, having a child with Don Henley would not have gone over big in Fleetwood Mac, with Lindsey and me – we had been broken up for two or three years. It would've been a nightmare scenario for me to live through."

Singer, songwriter, superstar Stevie Nicks is getting a little restless these days.

Rock star Stevie Nicks, in her own words

CBS Sunday Morning Interview with Tracy Smith

Singer, songwriter, superstar Stevie Nicks is getting a little restless these days.

The pandemic has put performances for large audiences on hold so she's waiting to take the stage again, and, as she told "CBS Sunday Morning's" Tracy Smith last week, the waiting is the hardest part.

"It seems like, for so many creative people, this is a very creative time. But, also, time is slipping away," Smith said to Nicks.

"Time is being stolen from all of us," Nicks said. "Absolutely. Especially if you're 72 years old."

"Does that weigh on you?" Smith asked.

"Yeah, it does," Nicks said. "When you're really working, you really stay young. You stay young because you have to."  "But, when you're just sitting around in your house, I think that Old Man Time starts to get ahold of you," the Fleetwood Mac singer continued.

Still, it seems that Old Man Time has always been kind to Stevie Nicks. You can see it in her just-released feature film, "24 Karat Gold the Concert," where she looks and sounds pretty much the same as she always did.  The movie will stream soon, but for the moment it's being shown in socially distanced theaters.

"It's as close to a really big rock 'n roll concert in a big venue as you're gonna get," Nicks said.

And it's not the only way Stevie is making herself heard these days. She decided to release her first new song in six years, "Show them the Way," as a call for action on the eve of the election.

And now, some of her classic tunes are suddenly climbing the charts again. Thanks to a cranberry-juice-loving Idaho skateboarder who went viral after posting a video on TikTok featuring Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams."

"So four decades after 'Dreams' and 'Rumours' came out, they're both in the top 10 again," Smith said.

"I know," Nicks said.

The video has inspired quite a few imitators, including bandmate Mick Fleetwood. And last week, one from Nicks herself.

"This TikTok thing has, kind of, blown my mind," Nicks said. "And I'm happy about it because it seems to have made so many people happy."

You could say making people happy has been Stevie Nicks' calling for the past 50 years or so,  And after a career of platinum-selling albums and sold-out concerts, she became the first and, so far, only woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.

"It's 22 men that are in twice for their solo work and being in a big band," Nicks said. "And no women."

"Until you," Smith said.

"Until me," Nicks said. "So I feel that I definitely broke a big rock 'n roll glass ceiling."

And her backstory is just as legendary.

When young Stevie dropped out of college to chase her musical dreams, her parents cut her off financially. So she waited tables and cleaned houses to support herself and her then-boyfriend, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

"Were there moments when you were cleaning, I mean, you were like cleaning houses, what, scrubbing toilets, mopping floors. Was there a moment when you thought, 'Ooh, I made a mistake?'" Smith asked.

"No. No, because I was doing that to support my music, my music pal, Lindsey and some other friends, too, you know, that didn't have hardly anything," Nicks said. "So I was the one who actually was able to pay the rent and pay the money to keep our Toyota running. And so it's like, I didn't mind at all, because I did not expect my boyfriend, Lindsey, to get a job. Because what in the world would he do?"

"So you had to be the one?" Smith said.

"It was all about me," Nicks said.

By the time she became a member of Fleetwood Mac, she almost expected to be underestimated. So she had an arrangement with the group's other female star, Christine McVie.

"You two stuck together through thick and thin and really had each other's backs," Smith said.

"Yeah, we did," Nicks said. "And Christine and I, we made a pact at the very beginning that if we were ever in a room of super famous guitar players that didn't treat us with the respect that we thought that we deserved, that we would just stand up and say, 'This party's over,' and we would walk out."

"And did you have to do that?" Smith asked.

"We never actually did have to do that," Nicks said. "So that was a nice surprise. We never had to make a scene."

And their friendship endures.

Stevie Nicks' romantic relationships seemed to be more of a challenge, but they inspired some great music.

"Have you had a love," Smith asked, "a great love in your life?"

"Yeah. Three. But it's not easy to be Mr. Stevie Nicks," Nicks said. "Even if you happen to be Mr. Really Famous Rock Star Guy."

"So Lindsey falls in that category?" Smith asked. "The great loves?"

"Oh, absolutely. Well, not exactly," Nicks said. "Lindsey is — has his own category. Lindsey was my great musical love. That's different."

Stevie Nicks' dad once told her she'd never marry because her music would always come first. He was wrong, she was briefly married once. But dad was also right.

For Stevie Nicks, music will always be her true love.

"When I'm 90 years old," Nicks said, "I don't wanna be laying in my big, gorgeous bedroom and, you know, with music playing and 15 little Chinese crested dogs and going like, 'Ugh, I'm so broken-hearted that I didn't find the one.'"

"And then I would have to answer myself and say, 'Yes, but you did find several "the ones" who you wrote really great songs about and that's why you're living in this absolutely spectacular house with everything that you want and anything that you could possibly wanna buy,'" Nicks continued. "And it's, like, so maybe this is just all the way your dad saw it when he said, 'Stevie will never get married.'"

"And the way it's supposed to be," Smith said.

Mick Fleetwood plays on

CBSNews.com

(if you missed Mick, Stevie and Christine on CBS Sunday Morning today... Here's the segment in text)

"Don't Stop" is the tune that rock band Fleetwood Mac serenaded Bill and Hillary Clinton with at the Inauguration Gala back in 1993. And "Don't Stop" is the band's guiding principle today , as its leader tells our John Blackstone . . . For The Record:

At his mountainside estate in Hawaii, Mick Fleetwood could be mistaken for an eccentric country gentleman, spending quality time with his pet pig, Tilly. "Sit! Sit!"

But Fleetwood is better known as the drummer of the group that shares his name: Fleetwood Mac.

In a rehearsal hall in Los Angeles, the five members responsible for the group's biggest hits are preparing for their first tour together in 17 years.

Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood have been rejoined by Christine McVie, who left the band in 1998, swearing she would never come back.

"She called me and said, 'How would you feel if I came back to the band?'" said Nicks. "And I'm like, 'Are you serious?'"

McVie said, "God, I'm really actually on this black carpet with these fantastic musical friends of mine and all just having, really enjoying it, you know, really enjoying it."

For Mick Fleetwood, having the band complete again has come at the right time.

"I think it's about getting your house in order, without being overly heavy," he told Blackstone. "The reality is, I'm sitting here, I'm 67 years old, I'm certainly not planning on leaving anytime that I know of, but you do see the picture in a different way just because you're older."

As part of "getting his house in order," Fleetwood has just finished his autobiography, "Play On," out next month. Why a book now? "I don't write songs," he said. "So this is a version of me writing a song."

He writes about his divorces from three wives, and his failures as a father to his four daughters.

"I would imagine that someone reading this document would say that he's sort of sold his soul to his band," said Fleetwood.

"I don't think he's sold his soul," said McVie. "I think he did it out of love."

Q&A with Christine McVie on her return to performing with Fleetwood Mac

Christine McVie on rejoining Fleetwood Mac
CBSNews.com

Born in England, singer, songwriter and keyboardist Christine Perfect joined the band Fleetwood Mac in 1970, after marrying the band's bass player John McVie. She performed with the group through it's most successful years, which saw the release the such top-selling albums as the 1975 "Fleetwood Mac," "Rumours, " "Tusk," and "Mirage."

She left the group in 1998, but this year has rejoined Fleetwood Mac, recording songs for an upcoming album and heading out on tour with her bandmates -- Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and ex-husband John McVie -- for the first time in 17 years.

Correspondent John Blackstone recently talked with McVie about her return to performing with Fleetwood Mac.

John Blackstone: On that rehearsal stage, does it seem like you were never gone? Or-- or is it a struggle sometimes?

Christine McVie: I thought it was gonna be a struggle, to be honest. I was a little anxious. But actually walking onto the stage, I mean, we started off in a smaller room that didn't have a stage, that was just one big flat room all on the same level. And it was much more of a laid-back rehearsal atmosphere.

But the moment you find yourself playing with these fantastic musicians and friends, it just melted away. And now I feel completely comfortable, really, surprisingly so.

Blackstone: Surprised yourself?

McVie: I surprised myself, indeed. I thought I was gonna be much more nervous. And we did a bit of recording beforehand as well earlier this year, which I had a little trepidation about. But that ended up being a magical time for us all. And hopefully, we'll finish the album next year. And now looking forward to the tour. (laughs) It's gonna be fantastic.

Blackstone: This all started with you climbing on a plane to Hawaii, having the nerve to climb on a plane to Hawaii.

McVie: Well, yeah. I've told quite a few people this story. But still, I mean, it's worth a tell. I did have a phobia about flying. And I had the phobia when I left Fleetwood Mac. It was a multiple of different reasons that led me to leave -- my father had died in England, and I wanted to be close to my own family there. So I bought a house.